THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1414, 5 November 1885, Page 3

THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

(Continued). Now let me tell you HOW THE PUBLIC TTOBKB HBTIJIATBS OAMB TO BB BBDUOBD. The Canterbury men were vcy gore. Thoy said, "We will not agree eren if we. do not get our railways 5 but what ia this : we are going baok to our constituents, and will have to tell them that the Parliament of New Zealand will not even grant ui a committee to consider their requests." They then went round the Home—or I should rather say the lobby—and found out that there were some people who had got railways made through their own lands and to their own doors, and these people oonsidered there should be no more railways. They said,"We don't want more railroads, and the Colony can rest for a good while to oome." Then there was the same olass of members who opposed our tariff. They said, " We don't care what it is while it is against the Government." They were like the Irishman, who, when he landed in Now York, asked, " Have you got such a thing as a Government here, for if you have, I'm agin it." (Loud laughter.) There was another olass of members in the House who j thought this: They looked upon politics like a pack of cards, and they said, " Let us have a new shuffle, and in this new shuffle we will get to the top and win the game. We will be Ministers, and then everything will go smoothly." The Canterbury members said," Very well 5 we know this feeling in the House. We have not got our railway, and we have not got our committee to inquiro into the railway ; we will see if we can't stop every other district in the same way from getting any publio works executed." Of course you know the story about the fox who lost his tail, and who set about persuading all the other foxes that it would be a good thing for them to lose their tails; it would make them look muoh better. They therefore determined that every other part of the Colony should be put in the same position as their own part. There were some Otago members who did this extraordinary thiag. They thought it waß the proper thing to vote for Captain Kussell's motion ; but while they voted for the motion as a whole, in order to please their constituents in Otago they voted against the Otago Central being included in the reduction. Such a ridiculously transparent thing never wbb seen in the world. The Minister for Public Works stood up and said this : " All these sums that I mention w»> have not taken contracts for. There are no liabilities entered into, and if you wish to stop ug from taking any more contracts then you can knook off these sums." Of course every person then saw plainly that if they choie to vote for Captain Russell's motion find it was oarried, it meant that all these votes that were mentioned would be struck off. Therefore if an Otago representative comes before you and says it was ruin to strike-off the Otago Central vote, and at the same time says he voted for Captain Bussell's motion, he is making a fool of you and is not acting honestly. Well, Captain Eusßell's motion was oarried, but happily for Otago (I shall not tell you how it ooourred, but you oan imagine it) she did not fare so badly—(laughter)— because we had a considerable number of oontraots let, and the carrying of the motion did not hurt us very muoh. The distriot that was hit hardest was Auckland; then perhaps, the district of Wellington. The majority of the Auckland men voted for the motion very foolishly. The oarrying of the motion meant this: We didn't need any loan; we had got authority to raise one million for the North Island Trunk railway, and of course, if we are hard up for money, the money is there. It will be hard for the North Island people if the money for their trunk railway is tiken for general purposes, but we can't help that, I may aay that I consider it very unforLunate that, while there has been such a largo reduotion made in the railway vote, the vote for roads and bridges was kept almost intact. And let me tell you what that means. There is actually in one class no less a sum than £551,000 for roads, and for publio buildings £144,000, and so on. That shows you the large sums voted for such purposes. Now what may happen will be this: So far as this year is concerned the reduotion of votes by Captain Russell's motion may not have any effect, but next winter, if contraots are not let, there will be a large number of men thrown out of employment. Then what the Opposition think is this; "Oh, we have limited their spending power; men will be thrown out of employment: there will be an outcry that it is oaused by the aotion of the Government; the Government will beoome unpopular j and we will float into office." —(Loud applause.) Whether they float into offioe or not, I hope you, as honest men, will know the reason why this was brought about.—(Cheers). Now, let me tell you another thing. The Government have been criticised about THE PUBOHABB OB THE DISTRICT BAITjWAYB. When I oame before you as a oandidate, I told you that if the Colony oould, without unduly increasing its burthens, purohase these distriot railways—not paying money, but giving debentures for them—it would be a good thing to do. I said in the House, when the charge was made by Sir George Grey against me about the Waimea railway, that if the owners were wise they would not sell on the terms we offered. And what I said turned out to be correct; Now we have purchased these railways, with debentures amounting to £323,000. We have even got rid of 2 per cent, interest; we have got rid of £IOOO per year by them ; we have saved the ratepayers nearly £IO,OOO, and we have got the district railways at a oost of only £3644 per mile on an average. By this transaction we have got rid of all the expenses attatohed to the floating of loans; we have got rid of interest during construction, and all expenses of engineering ; and we have got the lines at this cheap rate. I say that is one of the best bargains the Government of any country ever made, and I only wish all the railways in the Colony had I been as cheaply constructed.. Now, what is the meaning of this purohase f We don't need to go to the London market to float any money; we simply give debentures to the shareholders in these companies. There is not a single company that has not lost money j and I know that the shareholders in the Duntroon railway will have to pay £2 per share for aotual money lost. Some people in the House said we were driving a very hard bargain, but we had to look after the interests of the colonists. We had to get the railways as oheaply as we oould, and we got them very cheaply indeed. I IRONWORK IK THE OOLON7. I Let me say one word further about publio works, in regard to a matter we pledged our selves tot There was a great ory about encouraging the making of ironwork in the colony. Now, have we fulfilled our pledge in that respect ? Before we oame into offioe —if you leave out little things, such as points and crossings, coal- waggon*, and so forth—for all the years sinoe 1870 until the time we took offioe, that is during sll the 14 years that the Publio Works polioy was in opera tion, only 18,7001 b of ironwork wbs done in the Colony. Now, duriDg the time wa have been in office we have let oontraots for ironwork for to be done in the Colony, go that we have let contracts during our short term of offioe of one year to double the whole amount that had been let for 14 years before. Gentlemen, I think in that respeet we have faithfully carried out the pledge I gave you when I last addressed you.—(Ap-

plamo.) N3*r M me tell you bo* iu another way WE ATTEMPTED TO BNOOFBAGB INDUSTRIES. I am going to tell you shortly how we dealt with forest?, fisheries, and other things, but I want to speak now in reference to taxing proposal*. What did we do in the P/operty Assessment Bill ? Gentlemen, I belies in a land tax—(applauie)—but I am in a Hou*e where the majority do not believe with me on that point. Well, in order to pet the next best thing, what did we propose P We proposed to extend the exemptions on agricultural improvement! to £3000; we proposed to exempt all machinery up to £3OOO, io that every email manufacturer, instead of having to pay this property tax on his machinery, which might grind him down when he is getting no income, in the first struggling years he should be exempt from taxation. We also proposed to exempt the email farmer on his agricultural improvemente. We did not allow a man with a £3OO house to get off, because we only proposed an exemption of £250 for a house, but we proposed that the exemption should be extended to £3OOO for agricultural improvements and for machinery. That was another way in which we propoied to encourage manufacturers, but I regret to say that even in that respeefc we were not able to get the Assembly to agree with us. Now let me mention other things which we considered should be encouraged. We have got along our shores shoals of magnificent fish. We have a report from Mr M'Kenzie, who came out from Leith, I believe, saying that this Oolony could export fish largely. Why, we are importing fish instead of exporting. We thought the Oolony should havo as many induetries as possible, hence we introduced the Fisheries Bill, whioh I hope by the bounties to be given for export will lead to the starting of large canning and preserving establishments. We then proposed a Forests Bill whioh we carried, and the forest industry is a very important one. Would you believe that we exported from New Zealand last year, independently of logs, no less than 24,000,000 ft of timber. And we have to look at this s we have not only got our timber lands going away from us, but we are also having our forests destroyed, and if thoy are destroyed it will affect the whole timber industry of the Colony. Therefore, it was our duty to introduce the Forest Bill to try to get the forests improved and preserved, and get tree-planting better encouraged ; and I believe that Aot will be of paramount advantage. Bearing on this question of the encouragement of industries, I may say that we prodded also for the enoouragement of the mining industry. We provided also for a system of popular lectures to direct the miners' attention to the study of mineralogy and ohomifltry, in order that mining might be more scientifically and effectively carried out. Then we had under this same head the question of CHEAP MONEY to deal with, and we proposed in that respect the Mortgages Debentures Bill, whioh is now law, and whioh will enable companies in this Oolony to borrow money in England, and the more money we get we hope the cheaper it well beoome. Then with regard to the third fanotion of the State—the civilizing and intellectual function—-we dealt with that in the ADMINISTRATION Of EDUCATION. Of course, when I say anything about that, being Minister of Sduoation, you may think that I am praising myself, and I would rather not speak about it. But let me say this—l do not put it stronger—that if the syllabus I have laid down be carried out we will have sohools made more efficient ; we will have technical education encouraged, and will have our children trained not to think that & olerkship is the highest aim in life, but to look to industrial, soientifio, and agricultural pursuits as the best careers. By having drawing made oompulsory, and by altering the syllabcs as I have done, and by urging high sohools and gramma; sohools to take up technical education. I hope it will be said by whoever suooeeds me that at any rate I did something to promote this third funotion of the State—the intellectual and civilizing. Then we had to deal with the the fourth funotion of the State—preserving its entirety and extending it. In that respeot I regret thst the House did riot do more in the BOOTH SEA ISLANDS BUSINESS than it did. I looked to the Parliament to fulfil the dream of the past—that New Zealand was to be the oentre of the whole of the Pacific Islands; that we should send our products from here—that we should send there civilising influence!—that these islands should oome under our dominion and sway. Ido not think we were backed up as we ought to have been in that question, or we might have done more; Then comes the Federation question, whioh I shall not trouble you with, as I shall take another opportunity to deal with it. Then we oome to the great question of LOCAL GOTBBNMENT. Now we have done something in that respeot. Some people say nothing has been done. I say more has been done in this session than in any othor. Bemember the lines I laid down for Government last year. I said that we had one revolution too many in abolition, and the way local government was to be built up was to be built up slowly,) and gradually reformed little bit by little bit. (To bt continued.)